


Secrets

by ZenyZootSuit



Category: Kingdom Netflix, 킹덤 | Kingdom (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Kingdom Weekly, M/M, Marriage, Nightmares, Romance, Secrets, Sexual Content, The author tried to be historically correct, Trauma, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:07:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25092859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZenyZootSuit/pseuds/ZenyZootSuit
Summary: A wedding and a secret or two needn’t be anyone’s business but theirs
Relationships: Prince Lee Chang/Yeong-shin
Comments: 19
Kudos: 56





	Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ririsasy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ririsasy/gifts).



> For rirsasy, I believe this is what you ordered? I do so love weddings 
> 
> Note: I did not intend for this to be connected to the VIIMF/HDYMSY universe. Written for Kingdom Weekly’s prompt: Secrets
> 
> A bit hastily written, as I'm not entirely sure what happened to the past week, but I'm still pretty happy with it. There is surprisingly little information (written in English anyway) on Joseon weddings, so I pieced together what I could. Buckle up, this is a wild ride :3

*******

It was _hot_ as _hell_. And Chang was fairly certain Yeong-shin was impervious to weather.

The hunter seemed utterly unbothered by the sweltering conditions, throwing Chang an faintly exasperated look when the former royal had requested they pause briefly after coming across a shaded stream.

“We’ll be late getting back.”

“Isn’t it always you telling me to slow down these days?”

“Seo-bi will be upset.”

It was only after Chang agreed to take any and all flak from their resident physician and said that if they went any farther, he and his horse both would simply pass out and fall over than Yeong-shin agreed to stop.

Stripped down to their pants and soaking in the stream while their horses rested in the shade, Chang looked over at the hunter.

“Isn’t this nice?”

The hunter stared blankly at him. And then splashed him. Chang splashed him back, laughing like a small boy, as the hunter grinned, amused.

Sitting on the bank a bit later, drying off under the afternoon sun, a part of Chang wished that things could be like this forever. There hadn’t been reports of resurrection plants in months, so they had mostly been confined to their residence: an old house half a day’s ride from Sangju, secluded, but not too far from civilization. Far enough away that no one would bother the two unmarried, sketchy looking men and unmarried woman living there together, nor would they question what they were doing there.

It was nice. Seo-bi was mostly occupied with her research and had been making great strides as of late. In the middle of summer, the woods around their residence were full of edible plants and wildlife. Yeong-shin had been teaching him how to shoot, and he was getting pretty good at it.

Chang never wanted it to change, prayed every night that the nightmare of the monsters was finally over, never to return. He hoped to anyone who would listen that he could finally…rest.

Yeong-shin surprised him suddenly by laying down with his head on Chang’s stomach, letting out a decidedly undignified squeak at the feeling of the hunter’s wet hair on his skin.

“Cold!”

“I thought you were hot.”

“Not anymore!”

The hunter laughed, but did not move and Chang didn’t force him to, simply settled back with one arm under his head, his other hand in Yeong-shin’s hair. A slightly troubling thought struck him then and he wondered….

 _He_ was happy. _He_ did not want anything to change, but…

Was Yeong-shin happy? Was this really the life he had envisioned for himself, or…

“What?”

Chang looked down at the hunter. “Hmm?”

Yeong-shin turned his head to look back at him. “You got all tense all of a sudden. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Chang.”

The former royal sighed. “I was just…thinking.”

“About?”

Chang paused for a long moment. “Are you…” he began. “Are you happy?”

The hunter sat up and turned to face him, an amused look on his face. “With you?”

Chang nodded.

“Of course I am,” the hunter answered with a raised eyebrow. “Was there ever any doubt?”

Chang squirmed under the hunter’s gaze. “Don’t you ever wish you’d…settled down?”

Yeong-shin snorted. “You mean with a woman in some shitty little peasant village? I’ll tell you I had more than a few opportunities to do so. A number of families offered me their daughters after I killed the tigers tormenting their villages, and I turned every one of them down.”

“Why?”

“ _Why?”_ Yeong-shin shook his head, picking a flat rock up off the ground and turning it over in his fingers. “Because that life isn’t for me. I don’t…honestly think I could sit still in one place forever. It wouldn’t be good.” He turned and skipped the rock over the water. “I always did like weddings though.”

That made Chang crack a smile. “Oh?”

The hunter nodded. “When I was a little kid, I loved watching the weddings in my village. They were simple affairs, but everyone was always so happy. I would sneak off too and watch the ones in Sangju. Those were grander.” His tone sounded almost a bit bitter as he said it. “I always did want to get married.”

“I’d marry you.” The words were out of Chang’s mouth before he even realized he had thought them, and he blushed deeply as Yeong-shin laughed.

“Want to make an honest man out of me, do you?”

“I don’t know if that would do it, you’ve never been very honest.”

And Chang should have really picked that moment to shut up, get back on his horse, and ride until his head cleared out enough for him to analyze the sudden painful mess of emotions that welled up in his chest. Hurt, anger, happiness, fear…

The hunter stared at him for a long time, face perfectly neutral. “I certainly hope you plan on elaborating on that. You know I don’t play guessing games.”

Chang shifted uncomfortably into a sitting position, more than a few things that had been bothering him for a while suddenly bubbling to the surface. He had no idea why they chose now as the moment to do it.

“Your name,” he finally said. “The one your parents gave you. It’s not Yeong-shin.”

The hunter sighed heavily. “It’s not.” Then after a minute, “How long have you known?”

“Mu-yeong told me your identity tag was stolen off a dead man.”

The hunter flinched, face darkening. “So for a while. Why are you bringing this up now?”

More hurt flared. Chang didn’t know where it was coming from. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Yeong-shin sighed sharply. “Because my given name is dead to me. I do not use it. I do not think it. I do not even remember how to write it. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t important. My name is Yeong-shin now. What even is a name other than what someone else calls you? Why does it have to be given to you by your parents?”

Chang dropped his head into his hands. “I won’t ask you what it is.”

“Good, because I wasn’t going to tell you.” They sat in stiff silence for a long moment before the hunter spoke again. “What else is bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

“You know I hate arguing with you because I always lose. So if we have to argue, let’s just get it all over and done with right now. _What else_ is bothering you?”

Chang shook his head, not looking at him.

He heard Yeong-shin sigh. It was a painful sound. “Is it that you’re not happy here? With me?”

Chang looked up immediately. “No! No, not at all!” he said earnestly.

“Then what _is_ it?”

“It’s that I’m _so_ happy!” When Chang looked down at his hands, they were shaking. “I have never been more happy than I am right now, living here with you and Seo-bi. I never want it to change. But it’s not going to stay this way, it never does. Something _always_ happens, _always_ ruins it, and I can’t…” he trailed off, breath stuttering in his lungs.

Yeong-shin was regarding him kindly.

Chang took a deep breath and went on. “I’ve…been having nightmares again.”

The hunter nodded. “We can talk to Seo-bi when we get back. She’s been working on that one concoction of hers and getting pretty good at it. It doesn’t even smell like horse shit anymore.”

Chang nodded shakily, a faint smile touching his lips at the mention of one of Seo-bi’s experiments. “But…” He buried his face back in his hands, laughing miserably. “I can’t believe I brought up your name.I’m sorry…You’re right, I knew for years and I never mentioned it because it doesn’t matter. You’re Yeong-shin to me.”

He heard the hunter shift towards him and felt fingers under his chin, lifting his head up. “What else is bothering you?” he asked quietly one more time.

This time, Chang was honest. “In my dreams,” he began. “I’m always separated from you in some way. You die or I die or you leave…”

“I’ll never leave. You know that. Not unless you ask me to.”

A small smile flickered across Chang’s face. “I heard it said once…” he murmured. “That you will be with the person you love even in the afterlife if you marry them.”

Yeong-shin brushed his fingers over Chang’s cheek. “Love me, do you?”

“Was there ever any doubt?”

The hunter leaned forward and kissed him sweetly, but he broke away after a moment, eyes downcast. “I…don’t have to tell you that two men can’t marry.”

“Not officially, anyway.” Chang smiled a bit fuller when the hunter looked up at him. “I would say…that the important part of a marriage, the part that is truly sacred, is what is between us and the gods. The ceremony and our relationship to each other. Not what’s in any book under the magistrate’s desk.”

“I would have to agree with you there.”

Chang chuckled, leaning more into the hunter’s touch. “You’re the most important thing in the world to me, Yeong-shin ah, and I can’t bear to be parted from you. Ever.”

“Missed your calling as a poet, you did.”

“Yeong-shin ah!” Chang protested as the hunter laughed. “You’re ruining the moment!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” His laughter died down. “So you’re asking me to marry you then?”

“I am.”

“You gonna ask or am I gonna have to imagine?”

Chang cracked a nervous smile. “Will you marry me, Yeong-shin?”

The hunter gazed at Chang, nothing but warmth in his brown eyes. “I’ll marry you.”

Chang kissed him again, cradling his face in his hands and pouring all the love he held for the man into that one moment.

*******

“Who would have ever thought that a scraggly tiger hunter would take part in a royal wedding?”

Chang snorted nudging his horse forward beside Yeong-shin’s. “In case you forgot, I’m no longer a royal.”

“In blood you are.”

Chang shook his head. “Is that what you’re wanting then? A royal wedding?”

The hunter grinned at him. “The grandest wedding of all.”

The former royal couldn’t help but smile. “Well, I’ll certainly do my best.”

“How does it go then? A royal wedding?”

Chang leaned back in the saddle. “It’s a long affair. A series of 6 rituals taking place over the course of months.”

The hunter turned to him. “ _Months?_ ”

Chang nodded.

“You’re going to make me wait _months?_ ”

Chang raised an eyebrow. “You said you wanted a royal wedding.”

The hunter scoffed at him.

Chang chuckled. “You’ll be happy to hear we already started. _Napchae_ is the first ritual, the formal proposal and I’ve already terribly slighted you. It should have been done through a matchmaker and I should have given you a goose.”

“A goose.” Yeong-shin laughed. “I’ll get you a goose if you want a goose.”

“And I completely disregarded the part where a fortune teller needs to confirm that our marriage will bring us happiness.”

“I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me that.”

Chang blushed despite himself, so happy he couldn’t stop smiling.

*******

Chang was so very out of his element.

He had…borrowed Yeong-shin’s rifle early that morning as the man slept and had snuck off to…hunt.

But he could do this. Yeong-shin taught him how after all.

Hours later he arrived back home to a slightly harried Seo-bi and a frazzled Yeong-shin.

“You stole my gun!”

“I did.”

“What for?”

Chang nodded to the dead doe draped over the back of his horse.

Both the hunter and the physician stared.

“You shot that?” Seo-bi asked.

“I did.”

The physician looked between the hunter and the former prince. “I’ll go look for some herbs to roast it in,” she said simply before turning on her heel and striding off.

Chang got off his horse, smiling at Yeong-shin.

The hunter stared back at him, shaking his head. “We have plenty of food already dried out back. Why did you risk your safety running off alone to get this?”

“Because _napjing_ , the second ritual, involves me giving you the hide of a doe and red silk. I don’t have red silk, but I thought I could get you the doe.”

Yeong-shin looked, honestly, touched. An almost shy smile spread across his face as he ran a hand over the deer’s coat. “There will be a hole in the pelt since you shot it in the chest.”

“I did my best, alright?”

The hunter was grinning at him. Chang would never grow tired of seeing it. “You did very well.”

“I don’t know how to skin it.”

“That’s alright. I’ll teach you.”

*******

They decided that the final ceremony would take place late in the summer, Yeong-shin’s favorite time of year.

Late at night, they sat but the fire and Chang painted a picture for him of what it all would have looked like had they been marrying officially. He described the process of _gogi_ and _chaekbi_ , and Yeong-shin expressed his gratitude that he did not have to be formally installed as consort and spent many weeks learning nothing but royal customs.

“I would rather do _anything_ else.”

Chang showed him how he would bow to the hunter, and taught the hunter how to bow to him.

“So I’m the princess?” Yeong-shin laughed.

“I asked you, so yes.”

The night they had agreed on finally came. Seo-bi had business in Sangju lasting for several and had expressed a desire to attend alone.

Chang had woken up beside Yeong-shin that morning (decidedly not traditional, but if they wanted traditional then that was the least of their worries). Smiling at the man, he had stroked a hand over his cheek and told him to wear his silk robes that night, the ones he had been given when they departed Hanyang many years ago.

How the hunter had smiled at him.

Yeong-shin spent the entire day preparing the food they would eat, making rice, hunting something fresh, and raiding Seo-bi’s spice and herb basket for something to roast it in. Chang noticed at one point that he somehow procured wine.

Chang himself spent the day making their little residence look like something fit for a royal wedding. He had washed all the sheets the day before and spent entirely too much time making up their bedroom in a way that would put palace servants to shame. Then he moved outside, back to their favorite spot in the woods where they would actually be married.

Part of him felt a little ridiculous, brushing away stray sticks and finding flowers to line the little clearing, making it look…well, fit for a wedding.

 _Why?_ another part of him asked. Why was it odd to want to do something nice for his soon to be…

Husband.

Chang grinned wildly.

Hours later, Chang stood right back there, clean and dressed in his best robes (how worn they had gotten over the years). Yeong-shin met him there.

Chang would never get over how…honestly _beautiful_ Yeong-shin looked dressed in silk. He was absolutely stunning, freshly washed, his hair done up neatly for once. And the hunter was smiling at him. It was such a lovely smile.

“Why are you crying?” Chang asked, seeing the tears in the hunter’s eyes, smiling too even as he teared up himself.

“I’m so happy,” the hunter whispered.

Chang nodded, worrying his lip between his teeth. “I have a gift for you.”

Yeong-shin raised an eyebrow as Chang pulled something from his sleeve. A pin, much like the one Chang had worn in his hair since his doomed marriage back at the palace. “Since you’re married to me now…” he whispered.

Yeong-shin took the pin from him like it was made of porcelain rather than metal, turning it over in his fingers as he stared at it in wonder. “Oh, I see what this is,” he said with a light smile.

“Hmm?”

The hunter looked up, humor in his eyes. “You’re just trying to get me to wear my hair neatly.”

Chang _burst_ out laughing. “Yes, Yeong-shin,” he barely got out, grinning widely. “Yes, that’s definitely why I’m marrying you, because I simply cannot stand your messy hair.”

“I knew it.”

Still laughing, Chang helped him slide the pin through his bun. Finished, the former prince held Yeong-shin by the face, the hunter holding him by the ribs.

“I love you, Chang,” Yeong-shin whispered.

“I love you, Yeong-shin.”

Chang bowed to him. Yeong-shin bowed back.

The food they shared that night, that Yeong-shin had prepared for them, was the most delicious food Chang had ever tasted. They ate in silence, though not uncomfortably so. Truly, Chang could not think of a single thing that needed saying. The feeling of happiness that permeated the room said it all.

They finished eating. By then, both men were a several cups of wine in. Neither cared to drink normally, but this was a truly special occasion.

“So now we have to decide how we’ll be spending our wedding night,” the hunter murmured, looking over at Chang.

The former prince nodded. “Did you have something in mind?”

“I did.” Yeong-shin looked down at his empty cup, tapping a finger on the rim. “I want you to have me.”

Chang blinked, a bit surprised. It would not be the first time they had done it like that, but he could think of no more than three other instances where they had. It was due to preference mostly, on both their ends, and on Yeong-shin’s due to things that need not be brought up on such a good night.

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“B—“

Yeong-shin cut him off. “It’s…significant. For me. I can explain why later if you want, but…but I want to.”

Chang agreed.

They were unhurried that night. There was no one to hide from, no one at risk of finding them. They were alone, and they had all the time they wanted.

They kissed slowly, languidly, as they pulled the silk from each other’s shoulders.

“Stop me if you change your mind,” Chang whispered into the hollow of Yeong-shin’s throat. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Yeong-shin hummed, running his finger’s through Chang’s unbound hair. “You don’t have it in you to hurt someone like that.”

“All the same—“

“I know. And I love you for it.”

Chang took his time, opening up Yeong-shin with his fingers, kissing every inch of his beautiful body and sucking the head of his cock into his mouth as he brushed over the hunter’s prostate, making him sigh in pleasure.

His thrusts were unhurried as well: slow, deep presses of his hips as Yeong-shin wrapped his legs around his waist, one arm around his neck. The fingers of their free hands were twined together on the sheets next to Yeong-shin’s head.

It did feel good, this closeness. The way Yeong-shin arched up into him, head thrown back, soft sighs and moans of pleasure escaping him as Chang moved inside him. He sounded so different when he was like this. Chang adored it.

“Come inside me,” the hunter breathed, thighs tightening around Chang’s waist.

Chang pressed a kiss to the man’s lips. “You hate that.”

“Not this time.”

Chang made sure Yeong-shin came first, like the hunter always did him, stroking the head of his cock just the way he knew Yeong-shin liked it until the hunter was moaning and spilling over his fingers. Chang came after a few more thrusts, his face buried in Yeong-shin’s collarbone, the hunter’s fingers in his hair.

They laid in each others arms for hours after that, not wanting to sleep, not wanting this day to end.

“We’re married,” Chang murmured.

The hunter brushed a hand over his back. “We are.”

“We’ll be together now. Forever.”

Yeong-shin kissed him softly. “We will.”

For the first time in a long time, Chang slept without nightmares.

**_ El Fin _ **

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you think :3


End file.
